Mike’s Collection

Established by Henry H. Kane, the Scotch Oaks Essence Co. was a short-lived patent medicine business located in New York City. It’s signature preparation, Dr. Buckland’s Scotch Oats Essence, was exposed as a fraud by the medical community in the late 1880’s

Henry H. Kane, patent medicines, was listed in the NYC directories between 1886 and 1888 at 174 Fulton Street. Newspaper advertisements for the Scotch Oats Essence Company that also use that address, date back to the fall of 1885. The only directory listing specifically for the Scotch Oats Essence Company that I can find is in the 1889 NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory with an address of 160 Fulton Street. By January, 1889, the company was out of business. The January 11, 1889 edition of the Burlington (Vermont) Independent summed it up rather succinctly.

Scotch Oaks Essence

It is gratifying to learn that this pernicious fraud has proved a losing business, in consequence of its exposure by the medical and sanitary authorities, and the concern has failed.

The rise and fall of Scotch Oats Essence begins with the purported benefits of the preparation. Even in the unrestrained patent medicine era their claims were extravagant. One of their advertising pamphlets was summarized in a July 1889 edition of the Boston Journal of Health.

The praises of this (Dr. Buckland’s Scotch Oats) occupy the body of the pamphlet. It was to cure paralysis, epilepsy, dyspepsia, alcoholism, premature decay, headache, sterility, and, note this, the opium and morphine habits. It is declared to be “adapted to infants and octogenarians” alike, and that it destroys the craving for opium, morphine, alcohol and chloral.

This advertisement from the October 31, 1885 edition of the (New York) Sun covers a lot of the same territory and adds:

It builds up, restores and reinvigorates without falsely stimulating. wholly free from all Narcotics

Another advertisement claimed that their remedy contained “three of the most beneficial, yet harmless, medical agents known.”

Avenesca – a white amorphous powder that has a direct and distinct nerve tonic, heating and anti-spasmodic action;

Soluable Oats Phosphoids – the most perfect and in fact the only nerve food known to medical science and

Boskine – a principle found in oatmeal husk that keeps the blood pure, digestion perfect and the brain and mind clear

The company advertised extensively, much of it preying on the fear and lack of knowledge of the general public at the time. Many of their advertisements linked minor, everyday ailments endured by just about everyone with serious deadly consequences. In these newspaper advertisements from 1886, they linked common occurrences like headaches and sleeplessness with insanity, paralysis and brain softening. The cure? Scotch Oats Essence, of course.

This “Four Little Pigs” advertisement that I found in the November 10, 1887 edition of the New York Times outrageously pushed this concept even further.

This little pig went to the drug store

This little pig stayed home

This little pig got Scotch Oats Essence

This little pig got none

With the little pig who got none depicted in a coffin!

Motivated by the outlandish claims, outlandish advertising and resultant popularity of the preparation, in the first few months of 1888, a publication called “The Druggist Circular and Chemical Gazette” performed an independent analysis of it’s contents. The results of the analysis, printed in their April, 1888 issue, revealed that the preparation contained a combination of alcohol and morphine. The rather lengthy “Druggist Circle” story was summarized quite nicely in an April 20, 1888 edition of the Chicago Tribune.

Patent Medicine Frauds

The exposures which have been recently made of the contents entering into the composition of the proprietary tonic known as Scotch Oats Essence serve to call attention to a great and growing danger. This patent medicine has been freely advertised as a “tired brain and tired nerve recuperator,” a cure for the morphine or opium habit, and a medicine that the aged and infants alike could take with safety and benefit.As most persons are more or less tired in brain or nerves in this busy, driving world it is natural that the stuff should have a large sale. The qualities claimed for it, as well as its wide sale and use, have led to analyses of it by prominent chemists, with the result that they find it contains 40 per cent of alcohol, which is a pretty considerable quantity of liquor when large doses are taken. Worse than this, every four ounce bottle of the fluid contains from one-third to one-half a grain of morphine, which both chemists and doctors say is sufficient to create an appetite for the poison instead of curing the habit, as it claimed for the medicine. Dr. Edson of the New York Board of Health says of it: “The sale of the nostrum cannot be stopped too quickly. The feeding of children on morphine is a thing that cannot be stopped too soon, to say nothing of innocent adults being given the morphine without knowing it.” Dr Eccles, Dean of the Long Island College Hospital, who has analyzed it, also says:

“Without a shadow of a doubt, then, Scotch Oats Essence contains morphine. “Avenesca,” the fanciful title somebody has given the active agent of this proprietary preparation, is, then, a synonym for morphine, and the article that, like opium, will “quiet pain and produce sleep” is after all morphine. It is this thing, too, that is pledged to destroy the morphine craving and “free the victim from this terrible bondage.” To sat that “the infant and octogenarian may alike use it without harm and much benefit” is calculated to mislead the unwary in a manner that is pitiable.

The Druggist Circular didn’t stop there but attempted to track down the Dr Buckland who’s name was associated with the product. A month later, their May, 1888 edition made it very clear that the good doctor never existed.

A representative of the Circular visited Milford Conn., the alleged birthplace of this “great benefactor of the human race,” and found that the oldest inhabitants had never heard of a Dr Buckland, had never even heard of such a family, and did not believe that any such person or family had ever lived in or near Milford within the last 90 years…The fame of this marvelous man has, through a liberal use of printer’s ink, spread over the whole United States, while the place of his alleged birth has never heard of him and even denies his very existence.

The story went on to compare a portrait of the supposed Dr Buckland taken from a Scotch Oats Essence advertising pamphlet with that of a German violinist and composer named Ludwig Spohr who died in 1859.

Their conclusion:

It is interesting to note the resemblance to the alleged Dr Buckland, in every little detail, and it would seem on the first glance that some unscrupulous person might have passed him off on the Scotch Oats Essence makers as a good looking figure-head to use as an inventor; one who would inspire and hold the confidence of the public, while they were being victimized.

The company attempted to fight back in the newspapers. In this May 13, 1888 advertisement in The (Philadelphia) Times they labeled the Druggist Circular’s analysis as a “Cowardly Attempt at Assassination”

The advertisement went on to say:

So many hopeless invalids, paralytics, dyspeptics, neuralgics have been wholly cured, so many pompous doctors have seen hearty and strong patients whom they have pronounced incurable, or given up to die; so many beds of labor have been robbed of the pangs and dangers of childbirth; so many times has the doors of the madhouse and the inebriate asylum been shut in the very faces of poor victims by the timely use of Scott’s Oats Essence, that a certain clique decided that it “must be put down,” “destroyed,” “wiped out” at any cost, and they proceeded to try and do it. But “truth will prevail,” for every case that Scotch Oats Essence has cured a hundred friends and defenders of the remedy have been raised up, and its reputation is so strong today, that no clique, no lying, no false outcry, no ridiculous accusations or false reports can encompass its ruin.

And their defense was quite predictable.

Doctored specimens of the remedy with which poisonous drugs had been stealthily injected through the cork or placed in the bottles were sent to certain chemists and several Boards of Health, and these innocent and honest men were made unjustly to take sides with the assassins and were used by them to defame the great remedy.

Nonetheless, rather quickly, the Druggist Circular articles were picked up by the newspapers and by the end of the year the sheriff’s office had closed it down. The December 1888 issue of the Western Druggist reported the company’s demise.

Another obituary notice is in order; the Scotch Oats Essence Company has departed this life, and its mortuary advertisement appears in the form of a notice under “Sheriff’s Sales,” thus constituting the liveliest and truest announcement the company ever had. The wind-up occurred in consequence of two judgements, for $8,131 and $31,479 respectively, and it is likely we have heard the last of this concern.

While that may have been the end of Scotch Oats Essence, Kane continued on as a scam artist until he ended up in prison. According to this July 1, 1906 story written at the time of his death:

Dr. Henry H. Kane whose career in this city was full of vicissitudes died on Thursday at Saranac Lake of tuberculosis. He was taken ill about a year ago, soon after his release from prison, where he had been sent for four months, after his plea of guilty to the charge of having defrauded John W. McCullum of Mount Vernon of $10,000 by means of an alleged “radium treatment.”

Dr Kane conducted a sanitarium at 136 West Thirty-fourth Street when he was arrested in 1905. The detectives who had been making an investigation of his methods said he had made a fortune through fraudulent practices.

The bottle I found is a mouth blown 3 to 4 ounce square medicine. It certainly dates to the 1885 to 1888 life span of the company. It resembles several labeled examples recently advertised for sale on the internet.

The founder and original proprietor of the business was Dr Peter Fahrney. He, along with his his four sons, named Ezra Camerer, William Henry, Josiah Harvey and Emery Homer all had significant roles in the growth and management of the business over the years.

A section featuring Dr. Peter Fahrney was included in a publication entitled “Notables of the West – Being the Portraits and Biographies of Progressive Men of the West Who Have Helped in the Development and History Making of this Wonderful Country, Vol. 2” published in 1915. The following information from this feature provided some facts and insight into his early life and the beginnings of his company.

Dr. Peter Fahrney, Proprietary Medicines, Chicago, Illinois, was born near the village of Quincy, in Cumberland Valley, Maryland, February 2, 1840.

His grandfather, (also named) Peter Fahrney, over a century ago acquired fame as a noted herb practitioner, who wandered afoot over Pennsylvania and into Maryland and Virginia in the practice of his profession. He was familiarly known as the ‘Little Dutch Doctor,” and one of his special preparations which he devised as a blood cleanser became eminently successful as far as it became known…His son, Jacob, the father of Dr. Peter Fahrney…devoted most of his time to the dispensing of the herbs his father had perfected and upon which he also improved and made advancements.

Determined to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, Peter Fahrney entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, after which he took a course in chemical and pharmaceutical training at the Philadelphia School of Pharmacy.

This step is explained by the statement that he had made up his mind that a capable pharmacist, grounded in all the details of apothecary craft, would be enabled to present the world in convenient form the remedies that made “old” Dr. Peter his reputation.

The younger Fahrney began his practice at Morrison’s Cove, in Blair County Pennsylvania and later moved to Franklin County, Maryland, where he took over the practice of his cousin, Dr. John Burkholder, who had become ill and incapacitated. By this time he had begun to manufacture patent medicines and had achieved some success when the Civil War forced his move to Illinois.

Dr. Fahrney had achieved notable success when the rebellion broke out. In the sweep of armies through the Cumberland, his native city was put to the torch and his fortunes broken. He then removed to Ogle County, Illinois, where he enjoyed a reasonable share of prosperity. In 1869 he arrived in Chicago. He located at what is known as the North Side, securing a site for a laboratory in the section of Chicago just north of the river, his plant one of the first to be located on North Dearborn Street. He was well on his way to notable success when the fire of 1871 came and laid the building in ashes. With indomitable spirit he resumed operations within a few days and was soon again supplying his remedies to all parts of the country. A new location was found on South Hoyne Avenue, on the West Side and within a few years the business had reached the proportions of a national enterprise.

The Chicago directories confirm and add to this information. The address given for P Fahrney in the Edwards Chicago Directory (containing names and locations up through Dec 12, 1871) was 431 W. Lake, late 30 N. Dearborn. So based on this listing it looks like he resumed business on Lake Street after the fire destroyed the location on Dearborn .

Subsequently, the directories between 1872 and 1885 that I can find listed Peter Fahrney as “patent medicines” but only provided a residential address for him. This leads me to believe that the Panic of 1873 and resultant depression impacted the growth of the business in all or part of this time frame but I haven’t been able to confirm this.

Between 1887 and 1890, Peter Fahrney was listed again with a business address at 393 Ogden Avenue and in July, 1889, the business incorporated as Dr. Peter Fahrney & Sons. The incorporation notice was printed in the July 31, 1889 edition of the “Paint, Oil & Drug Review.”

Around the same time, the business relocated to 112-118 Hoyne Avenue. By then, three of his four sons were involved in the business. In addition to naming Peter Fahrney as the president, the 1891 Chicago Directory named Ezra as the vice president, William as treasurer and Josiah as a buyer. By 1899, Emery was also included in the business listings.

Upon Peter Fahrney’s death on March 5, 1905, his oldest son,Ezra, was named president of the company. This photo of him is from the 1910 edition of ‘Notable Men of Chicago and Their City.”

According to Ezra’s biography, also included in the 1915 printing of “Notables of the West,” he had been involved in the business from a very young age and had a significant role with the company well prior to the time of Peter’s death.

Shortly after leaving college Ezra Camerer Fahrney organized the advertising branch of the business and conducted it to an extent that brought quick success. Several years later he was made general manager, and when, in 1889 the business was incorporated, he was elected Vice President and given a one-tenth stock control. A few years thereafter he virtually became the guiding hand of the company, making and marketing its remedies and shipping them throughout the country. The business grew under his management to vast extent, the laboratory on Hoyne Avenue being today one of the most perfectly equipped plants in the United States.

Following Peter’s death, in addition to listing Ezra as president, the 1906 Chicago Directory named Josiah as vice president, William as treasurer and Emery as secretary.

The company remained on Hoyne Avenue until the late teens. Around 1910 their address changed to 19 to 25 S Hoyne Avenue but this was apparently caused by the renumbering of Chicago’s street system and not the result of a physical relocation. By 1920, they had moved to 2501 West Washington Boulevard. At some point, they also established a factory in Winnipeg, Canada.

Ezra remained president until his death in 1930 after which Emery assumed the presidency until 1935 when he also passed away.

William (1920) and Josiah (1922) had previously passed away so at this point, according to a story in the October 8, 1935 edition of the Ironwood (Michigan) Daily Globe, the business passed in trust to Emery’s family.

Emery Homer Fahrney, of Oak Park, who died last night at his summer home near Oshkosh, Wis., was president of the Peter Fahrney Drug Company, founded by his father, who left an estate estimated at $2,000,000.

The patent medicine fortune founded by Peter Fahrney will go now, it is reported, to his granddaughters, Merry and Myrtle, under the terms of a trust.

Ultimately his widow, Mrs. Marion Fahrney Hardeen also shared in the estate.

Management of the company after Emery’s death is not clear to me but apparently the company remained in Chicago well into the 1960’s. In 1952 they purchased a building on N. Ravenswood Avenue. The purchase was reported in the June 22, 1952 edition of the (Chicago) Suburbanite Economist.

Dr. Peter Fahrney and Sons Company, 2501 Washington, has purchased a building fronting on N. Ravenswood Ave., near Wilson Ave. The firm is a producer of proprietary medicines.

Advertisements as late as 1964, this one printed in the October 4, 1964 edition of the Palm Beach (Florida) Post, included their address as 4543 N. Ravenswood, Chicago.

Whether or not they also retained the Washington Blvd location after 1952 is not clear.

The business produced several products over the years including “Forni’s Magolo” and a liniment called “Heil-Oel” but the one they advertised as dating back to Peter’s grandfather, the “Little Dutch Doctor,” was “Dr. Peter’s Blood Vitalizer.” A March 1, 1894 advertisement in the (Washington D.C.) National Tribune stated:

…Thus does the discovery of Dr. Peter’s Blood Vitalizer by old Dr. Peter Fahrney date back into the past century.

During its existence, hundreds of so called medical discoveries have sprung up, only to be cast aside and forgotten, because they could not stand the test of time, but the Blood Vitalizer has held its well-earned place in the field of medicine, and is today without a rival as a family medicine.

Another advertisement, this one from the March 14,1901 edition of the National Tribune provides a list of diseases supposedly cured by Dr. Peter’s Blood Vitalizer.

Around this time, the product was also being marketed in German newspapers as Forni’s Alpenkrauter (sometimes Alpenkraeuter) Blut Beleber (Translated: alpine herbs blood animator). The following two advertisements are from German newspapers; one from the November 21, 1890 edition of the (Hermann Missouri) “Hermanner Volksblatt” and the other from the May 20, 1897 edition of the (Topeka) Kansas Stats-Anzeiger.” The Dr. Peter Fahrney name and address are clearly visible at the bottom of each advertisement.

According to a publication entitled “A Mile Square of Chicago,” in addition to Forni’s Alpenkrauter, the product also appeared under several other names according to the nationalities to which it was advertised. The names mentioned in the publication are: Hoboko, Novoro, Zokoro, Kuriko and Gomozo. Newspaper advertisements from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s appear to bear this out. I’ve seen advertisements in that era for Novoro, Zokoro and Gomozo. The advertisements appear to be in French, Dutch and Polish respectively. The Dutch (March 28, 1900 Sioux Center Iowa News) and Polish (July 3, 1901 Chicago Telegraf) advertisements are shown below.

Regardless of the name presented, advertising from that time typically stressed its natural ingredients.

Composed exclusively of herbs, roots, leaves, barks, etc., it is nature’s true medicine, unaltered, as nature does not change. The human constitution is the same today as it was one hundred years ago. It is subject to the same troubles and ailments, and the Blood Vitalizer demonstrates to the living generation its effectiveness, as well as it did to those of the past.

What the advertising failed to mention was the fact that it contained 14% alcohol. In fact, this advertisement from an 1893 issue of the Farmers’ Review, would have you believe that your “glow of vitality” was not intoxication but the result of a cleansed and revivified system.

“A Spades a Spade” – The saying is a true one. Yet there never was a greater tendency to call things by their wrong names then now.

Whisky by any other name is just the same – it isn’t any more invigorating to the blood if you call it “bitters” than if you call it whisky.

Intoxication may be easily mistaken for the glow of vitality – but it’s not.

Dr. Peter’s Blood Vitalizer is an herb root remedy for all blood troubles – it cleanses and revivifies the entire system. You couldn’t get drunk if you drank a barrel of it.

It has successfully stood the test of more than one hundred years of popular use.

Don’t ask your druggist. It can be had of local retail agents only. Write Dr. Peter Fahrney, Chicago.

This marketing approach however did not escape the scrutiny of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, whose North Dakota Experiment Station analyzed its contents. In their September, 1913 Special Bulletin they concluded:

$1.25 per pint for a mild laxative and alcoholic stimulant, made palatable by the presence of a little sugar, ought to furnish a pretty good profit for the manufacturers, with very little likelihood of any great permanent benefit to the users of the preparation.

With the advent of National Prohibition, “an alcoholic stimulant made palatable by the presence of a little sugar,” was certainly in great demand. Apparently available during the prohibition years as a medicinal product, it was advertised in the newspapers throughout that period. This item, promoting an establishment called George Tuch’s Place in the September 12, 1924 edition of the (Riverdale, Illinois) Pointer, looks like a rather thinly veiled advertisement for a club serving alcohol in the form of Fahrney’s Alpenkruter.

By the late 1940’s, most of their advertisements continued to promote Peter Fahrney’s reputation as a doctor and to mention that the product was composed of medicinal roots and herbs, but the description of expected results had been toned down quite a bit. This advertisement from a February 13, 1949 edition of the New York Daily News, which actually contained a picture of Peter Fahrney, was pretty typical.

…get Fahrney’s Alpenkrauter – the time-proved laxative and stomach tonic medicine. Contains 18 of Nature’s own medicinal roots, herbs and botanicals. Use as directed. Gently and smoothly Alpenkrauter puts sluggish bowels to work and aids them to eliminate clogging waste; helps expel constipation’s gas, gives the stomach that comforting feeling of warmth.

Based on newspaper advertisements, the preparation was still being marketed up through the 1950’s and early 1960’s. By then the advertisements were predominately, if not entirely, published in english but the various names under which it was sold survived. This series of advertisements appearing between 1954 – 1955 used the same advertising copy to promote the product under several of its various names.

According to Yelp.com, today 2501 W Washington Blvd is a five story, 68,000 square foot building built in 1920. Peter Fahrney & Sons began listing it as their address around the same time, making them the original tenant. As far as I can tell, a catering business called the “Revere Loft” currently occupies the top floor with the remaining floors vacant and for rent.

Building information for 4541 N Ravenswood Ave. presented on realtytrac.com states that it was built in 1927, so it is certainly the building Peter Fahrney & Sons purchased in 1952.

The bottle I found is a machine made, square, roughly pint sized medicine embossed on one side: “Prepared By Peter Fahrney & Sons Co. Chicago, U.S.A.” The other side is embossed: “The Reliable Old Time Preparation for Home Use.” This leads me to believe it contained “Dr. Peter’s Blood Vitalizer.” Under what name? Your guess is as good as mine.

Primarily known as an ink manufacturer, S. S. Stafford, Inc. was founded by Samuel Spencer Stafford. His February 16, 1895 obituary in the New York Times mentioned his early years as well as his entrance into the ink business sometime in 1858.

He was a graduate of Union College, and also of the Albany Medical College, but he did not practice medicine. When Dr. Stafford received his medical diploma, in 1849, the California gold fever was at its height, and Dr. Stafford went to San Francisco, where he remained until 1854. In that year he returned to New York, and four years later he engaged in the manufacture of ink.

In the four year period between 1854 and 1858 the NYC Directories listed him as an accountant at 188 Pearl (1855-56) and an engineer at 54 William (1856-57). Then, according to an 1888 feature in “The American Stationer”

In 1858 S. S. Stafford bought the trade mark and stock of Conger & Field, who were the first to make a writing fluid in this country. Their business had dwindled to small proportions and it was not long before Stafford’s inks were better known than those of his predecessors.

Conger & Field was listed in the New York directories as “ink,” and located at 212 Broadway (1856-57) and 52 William (1857-58 and 1858-59). The proprietors were Genet Conger and George W. Field. I have to believe that they became acquainted with Stafford sometime around 1857 when they were neighbors or possibly shared a building at 52 and 54 William.

After purchasing Conger & Field, the NYC directories, listed Stafford as a “stationer,” located at 42 Cedar St (1859 -60) and later as “ink” at 84 Cedar St. (1860-61.) By 1861-62 he was listed at 11 (sometimes 10) Cedar St. where he remained until 1870.

During this time I’ve seen advertisements for “Stafford’s Combined Writing and Copying Fluid” as well as “Stafford’s Perfumed Violet Ink” but the company did not restrict itself to the manufacture of inks alone. Other products included an adhesive called “Stickwell & Co.’s Mucilage” and a leather preservative called “Caoutchoucin.”

Sometime in early 1870 the business moved to 218 Pearl Street where it remained until 1886. At that time, according to the 1888 “American Stationer” feature, he built a factory at 601 – 609 Washington Street.

The present manufactory, of which an illustration is given, was erected by Mr. Stafford in the Spring of 1887 upon land which he purchased.

It is a plain brick structure, five stories high, 75 feet wide and 80 feet deep. Including the basement there are six floors, all of which are used in the manufacture of Stafford’s inks and Stickwell’s mucilage. The establishment is fitted with the best machinery and appliances for turning out perfect and uniform goods.

After Samuel Spencer Stafford’s death in 1895, his son, William A.H. Stafford, took over leadership of the company. According to his obituary in the January 17, 1911 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, he had entered the business in 1872 at the age of 16.

The company apparently incorporated in New York sometime in 1903. The company was listed as a New York corporation in the 1904 NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory with a capital of $250,000. William A H Stafford was named president, William B Montgomery, secretary and Robert Bachia, treasurer. Following William A H Stafford’s death in January of 1911, his son, William S Stafford assumed the presidency.

The company eventually outgrew their NYC building on Washington Street and by 1906 was leasing storage space in nearby buildings. Then in 1914 they moved the carbon paper and typewriter portion of the business to leased space at 129 – 135 Charlton St. According to an item in the March 28, 1914 edition of the “American Stationer:”

Owing to a great increase in its carbon paper and typewriter business S.S. Stafford, Inc. has moved that department to 129-135 Charlton Street. The quarters which the company has occupied for many years at 601-609 Washington Street are now devoted entirely to the making of writing inks and other well known specialties made by the concern.

Six years later, according to an April 1920 item in “Walden’s Stationer & Printer,” the company purchased three buildings adjacent to their Washington Street building effectively consolidating the business at that location. This provided them an address on both Washington Street and 622 Greenwich Street.

S.S. Stafford, Inc., manufacturers of writing inks and adhesives, located at 609 Washington Street, New York City, have recently purchased three buildings in the rear of their present premises. The additional space will be combined and connected with their present home, giving them 33,000 square feet of floor space and making the line covered by their buildings 94 x 184 feet.

The carbon paper plant operated by the company at 129 Charlton Street will be removed to the new building and also outside storage space which is being used will be relinquished as fast as the leases on the same expire.

“The new arrangements will greatly economize the handling of raw materials and enable us to take care of the enormous increase in our business,” the company said.

In addition to their New York location, this 1914 advertisement also mentioned a Toronto, Canada location. Other advertisements around this time included the Toronto address as 9 Davenport Road. Later, by the early 1920’s they also added a Chicago location at 62 West Kinzie.

Through the 1920’s their menu of products continued to expand. As evidenced by this advertising item in the June 10, 1928 edition of the “Austin (Texas) American Statesman,” much of the growth was fueled by the proliferation of the automobile.

This menu of products not withstanding, there’s no doubt that the head of the product family was always ink and they made many different types. The “Stationary and Printing” section of the 1890 edition of “Seeger and Guernsey’s Cyclopaedia of the Manufacturers of the United States,”named them as manufacturers in the following subsections: Writing Inks, Carmine Ink, Colored Inks, Copying Inks, Indelible Inks, Rubber Stamp Inks, Safety Inks and Stylographic Inks.

In the teens and early 1920’s, the product that Stafford’s primarily advertised was called Stafford’s Commercial Writing Fluid. A March 15, 1919 advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post called it “The Ink That Absorbs Moisture From The Air” and was typical of their advertisements around that time.

Do you just buy “ink” – pallid liquids which write a sickly color – which soon corrode your pens – and which, worst of all dry up in your inkwell quickly, leaving a thick, clotted residue and caked particles on the side of the well?

Or do you insist on Stafford’s Commercial Writing Fluid – the ink that absorbs moisture from the air?

This peculiar property of Stafford’s Commercial is the reason why it is so slow to evaporate in the inkwell, why it continues to flow smoothly after ordinary inks have become thick and unfit to write with. This is one of the most important discoveries in the history of ink making. It means a real savings for you.

There’s another reason for using Stafford’s Commercial. It has a strength of color which inks have lacked since the dye situation became so involved. American color makers have at last solved the problem. For Stafford’s is brilliant blue when you write and turns permanent black in a few hours.

The following item regarding Stafford’s Commercial Ink appeared in the June 16, 1917 edition of the “American Stationer and Office Outfitter.” I was attracted by the historical perspective it provides of the World War I era and will let you decide whether or not it’s true or just advertising in disguise.

Romantic Journey of Torpedoed Letter

The following letter was recently received by W.S. Stafford, President of S.S. Stafford, Inc., manufacturer of Stafford’s inks, etc., of 103 Washington Street, New York. The original letter is now at the New York office and establishes the fact that the permanent characteristics of Stafford’s ink have not been affected by the exigencies of the war.

Dear Sir: – It may interest you to know that I sent a letter to my daughter in England, bearing date, February 25, 1917. The letter with the rest of the mail went down on the “Laconia” which was torpedoed. Some of the mail bags were washed ashore with the wreckage. The letters then, which had legible addresses were forwarded on their journeys, mine reaching my daughter. The writing in the letter is blurred but readable – the envelope which she returned to me to see shows the address perfectly clear, the ink not even dimmed, although it had a bath in sea water.

The ink I used was Stafford’s Commercial Fluid which I bought at the White House, S.F.

I was so pleased to see the address looking perfectly good after such a test, that I thought I would let you know about it.

(The date given the letter mentioned in the story is actually the date that the Laconia was torpedoed and in 2008 the wreck of the Laconia was found 160 nautical miles off the coast of Ireland, so I’m leaning toward advertising in disguise.)

In the early 1920’s the company added stamp pads to their menu of inks. An introductory item appeared in the September, 1921 edition of “Walden’s Stationer and Printer”

The S.S. Stafford Company has recently started the manufacture of stamp pads on a strictly quality basis. Only the finest quality of felt blotting paper and nainsook enter into the manufacture of these pads, while the inks with which they are saturated are made with the finest dyes obtainable in a glycerine solution insuring the longest life possible.

As the use of fountain pens decreased, it was probably the addition of stamp pads that kept the company in business. They’re still listed at their long time location (Office: 622 Greenwich and Factory: 609 Washington) in the 1960 Manhattan telephone directory.

According to his obituary, William S Stafford was still president of the corporation at the time of his death on November 6,1943. It’s not clear who ran the company after he passed away. One internet source mentions that Stafford’s was acquired by the R.T. French Company in the late 1970’s but I haven’t been able to confirm this.

Today 603 Washington Street appears to be the original building constructed by Stafford in 1887 (although streeteasy.com states it was built in 1880) . It’s now a residential cooperative.

Currently 622 Greenwich Street is also a residential cooperative called “The Stafford.”

According to city realty.com it was built in 1881. It’s likely one of the three buildings purchased by Stafford when they consolidated in 1920.

The bottle I found is machine made with 8 oz. embossed on the shoulder. Most likely a bulk ink bottle, it resembles a labeled Stafford bottle for sale on the internet.

Headquartered in Freeport, Illinois, The W.T. Rawleigh Company was a pioneer in the direct from factory to home sales model. The company’s founder and long-time president was William T. Rawleigh.

According to a story in the January 23, 1951 edition of the Dixon (Illinois) Evening Telegraph, printed at the time of his death:

He was the founder and president of the W.T. Rawleigh Company which manufactures and sells medicines and household products on worldwide scale. During his long active career he served as mayor of Freeport, as a member of the Illinois General Assembly, and as editor and publisher of the old Freeport Standard.

Another story printed around the same time, this one in the Chicago Tribune, summed up his general approach to business like this:

William T Rawleigh who made millions by sending his wagons loaded with extracts and spices over the rural routes of the nation died today…

Before the automobile brought the farm wife within easy reach of the crossroads general store, Rawleigh wagons came to her door with vanilla extracts, patent medicines and other packaged products. His idea was the development of one he had as a schoolboy, in Mineral Point, Wis., selling books to his classmates, then later making and selling them ink.

A 1920 advertisement that appeared in the May 11th edition of Eau Claire, Wisconsin’s Leader Telegraph expanded on this concept.

Those who are familiar with Rawleigh’s Good Health Service are familiar with its economy, convenience and efficiency. It means bringing directly to your home the best products of laboratory and factory at low, direct-to-home prices. The W.T. Rawleigh Company manufactures all it’s own Household Remedies, Extracts and Flavors, Spices and other Products in it’s own immense factories at Freeport and Memphis and sells direct to consumers. This method of manufacturing and selling means the elimination of unnecessary middlemen’s profits, thus giving to the users of Rawleigh’s Good Health Products better qualities and greater values. If you have never used any Rawleigh Good health Products, we urge you for economy’s sake and for your own satisfaction to give the Rawleigh Service Man at least a trial order when he calls.

The advertisement went on to describe a wide range of products available from your Rawleigh Service Man. They included:

This menu however appears to only be the tip of the iceberg. Three years earlier, in 1917, the company’s annual publication, “Rawleigh’s Almanac, Cook Book and Medical Guide,” advertised that they were selling 140 different products that year.

The company’s early history and growth was highlighted in a September 21, 1932 feature in the Freeport Journal Standard. Several excerpts from this feature are presented in quotations below.

Many older residents of Stephenson County remember when W.T. Rawleigh began calling at their homes with a one horse rig, leaving with them a few medicines, extracts spices, etc. That was in the spring of 1889. Soon he had built up a large business, and about 1891 he began manufacturing. By this time he was also selling at wholesale…

The first little factory was on the ground floor of a store building at 123 East Exchange Street. There were only three employees (Rawleigh’s now have 1300) and but 25 Rawleigh dealers as contrasted with over 8500 at this time. In a year’s time more space was needed, and the store room adjoining the first factory was added.

It was around this time that Rawleigh incorporated the business, calling it the Dr. Blair Medical Company. The incorporation notice, dated December 29, 1894, was printed in the Chicago Tribune on the following day.

The 1932 Freeport Journal Standard Feature continued the history:

The next two years continued the rapid growth, and in 1898 a new factory with two stories and basement was built at West Douglas and Powell Streets. Three years later an addition was built which increased the floor space over three times.

On May 24,1902 the business applied for the Rawleigh’s (in script) trademark (No.39768) and it was registered on February 10, 1903.

Shortly thereafter, the company name was changed to the W.T. Rawleigh Medical Co. and they continued to grow.

So the story of progress continues. The next move of this rapidly expanding company was toward railroad facilities and was made in 1904 when the company left the residence district and built its first factory at the present site – a building still used, partly for manufacturing and partly for some of the general offices.

An invitation to the opening day reception for the new factory, printed in the February 24, 1905 edition of the Freeport Journal Standard, indicated that, at the time, the new factory included the Printing, Milling, Manufacturing, Bottling, Packing, Power House and Wagon Factory Departments all operational under one roof.

A picture of the new plant appeared in the July 11, 1905 edition of the Freeport Journal Standard.

The 1905 Freeport Illinois Directory (the earliest one I can find) included the factory location as Spring, corner of Liberty. Now listed as the W.T. Rawleigh Medical Co., W.T. Rawleigh was named as president and treasurer, J.R. Jackson as secretary and D.C. Rawleigh as superintendent.

After 1905, the Freeport headquarters continued to expand as entire buildings were added.

Since then many other buildings have been added at Freeport: The large 8 story factory at the corner of Main and Liberty; the dip and disinfectant factory on Washington Street; the impressive power plant and printing and manufacturing building across the street from the 1904 factory and the glass factory in East Freeport.

Sometime between 1913 and 1916, the company name was shortened from the W.T. Rawleigh Medical Co., to simply the W.T. Rawleigh Co.

The company added branch factories in Memphis and Winnipeg in 1912 and by the early 1930’s they were operating world-wide with additional factories in Montreal, Canada, Melbourne, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand.

The business secured raw materials from producers at their source, importing them from all over the world to their factory locations. This necessitated them to operate branches in areas where they obtained their raw materials. These foreign branch locations included places like Madagascar, where they secured vanilla, cloves and oil of geranium; Marseille, France, vanilla and perfume related oils, roots and herbs; and Kobe, Japan, pyrethrum flowers used in making insecticides.

Their distribution network included facilities at Chester Pa., Richmond, Va., Minneapolis, Minn., Denver, Colo., Oakland, Calif. and Albany, N.Y. Each distribution branch had a full sales office and shipping staffs serving dealers in several states.

The 1932 feature offered a glimpse into the size of the operation at that time. :

Last year Rawleigh’s produced and sold the astonishing total of over 43 million packages of finished products. Over 123 million pounds of freight (2256 carloads) were received at the various United States and Canadian factories and about 2500 carloads were forwarded from factories and branches.

W.T. Rawleigh served as president of the company up until his death in 1951 and J.R. Jackson, his brother-in-law, continued as secretary until the mid-1950’s.

The business remained tightly held by the Rawleigh family until 1973 when it was sold to a holding company. The March 3, 1973 edition of the Freeport Journal Standard reported the sale.

The holding company of W.T.R., Inc. organized by the New York investment banking partnership of Gibbons, Green and Rice is purchasing the W.T. Rawleigh Co., of Freeport.

The new owner is paying approximately $5.5 million for the American Rawleigh company and has an option to buy the Canadian Rawleigh company for $2.5 million, according to Edward Gibbons, one of the partners…

The majority of the Rawleigh stock has been held by the estate of Mr. Rawleigh’s daughter, Mrs. Lucille Rawleigh and her two sons.

As far as I can tell, the company remained headquartered in Freeport, Illinois until sometime in the 1980’s. After Rawleigh left Freeport, some of their buildings were leased for warehousing for a short period of time before the property was completely abandoned in 1988.

Five buildings of the Rawleigh complex still exist today. This building, now abandoned, is located on Spring Street and was most likely the power plant, printing and manufacturing building mentioned in the 1932 Freeport Journal Standard feature as being built across the street from the original 1904 factory.

Master planning for reuse of the Rawleigh property and buildings began in 2000 and the redevelopment is in progress. According to the City of Freeport’s web site:

…the City has been actively removing environmental hazards and facilitating reuse of the Rawleigh (property) into a dynamic mixed-use development planned to include a new Amtrak station, light industrial and flexible business space and restaurant and housing

Now headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida, the W.T. Rawleigh company still exists today, selling a wide range of products over the internet. According to an August 10, 2000 article in the Palm Beach Post:

The company would have likely disappeared a decade ago had it not been bought by West Palm Beach businessman and big-game hunter Harry Hersey III, a cigar smoking Vietnam veteran who champions multilevel marketing and chairs the industry’s trade group in Washington, the Direct Selling Association.

Today (as of 2000) Rawleigh is part of Hersey’s other multilevel marketing operation, Golden Pride International, a 17-year old outfit that sells nutritional supplements. Together, the companies sold about $11 million in products to some 15,000 distributors last year, netting a profit of $2.5 million, Hersey said.

Recognizing that this website is centered around bottles, I couldn’t end the post without including a description of the Rawleigh bottle factory that was included in the 1932 Freeport Journal Standard feature.

One of the most fascinating of the industries within the Rawleigh industries is the bottle factory, where flames leap and writhe in the terrific heat of 2650 to 2675 degrees Fahrenheit, a temperature which must be maintained day and night for many months at a time to manufacture the bottles Rawleigh’s use. The annual capacity of the factory, first started in 1926 and since enlarged several times, is close to 100 million bottles. A huge bottle warehouse completed last year will house 12 million bottles at one time. New equipment includes a cooling system superior to any existing system and the first of its kind to be used; new bottle-forming machines which make bottles with almost incredible swiftness and perfection; new reversing valves to add to the efficiency of furnace heat; new batch equipment; a new annealing oven or lehr; improved air compressors, etc.

The bottle I found is machine made with the Rawleigh’s (in script) trade mark on the front. “Bottle Made In “USA” is embossed in extremely small letters near the base. The makers mark on the base, a “P” located within a circle, indicates that it was most likely made by the Pierce Glass Co. This suggests that it was made prior to Rawleigh’s establishing their new bottle factory in 1926. Pierce started business in 1905 so this likely puts the manufacture of the bottle sometime between 1905 and 1926. It actually looks a lot like the Cod Liver Oil bottle pictured in the 1917 Almanac, Cook Book and Medical Guide pictured above.

The West Disinfecting Company was an early manufacturer of disinfectants and a pioneer in bathroom/restroom cleanliness. The company held patents for a wide range of disinfectants as well as for items still seen universally in restrooms today such as liquid soap dispensers and paper towel dispensers. This 1909 advertisement showed an early version of their liquid soap dispenser.

Their signature cleaning fluid and disinfectant was called Chloro-Naptholeum, or CN for short.

It appears that the business had its roots with Robert S. West in the late 1880’s in Cleveland, Ohio. An item in the July, 1888 edition of “Carpentry and Building” indicated that West had introduced Chloro-Naptholeum into the United States at around that time.

A disinfecting fluid called chloro-naptholeum said to possess thorough effectiveness as an antiseptic and disinfectant, besides being cheap and having an agreeable smell is being put upon the market by Robert S. West, corner of Elm and Winslow Streets, Cleveland Ohio. From a circular before us we learn that this preparation is already largely used in England and a number of testimonials from those who have used the material abroad are presented. Its power as a germ destroyer is said to exceed that of carbolic acid and other similar antiseptics that are soluble in water. It does not dissolve in water but mixes with it, forming an emulsion like milk.

The 1900 census records indicated that Robert S.West was born in England and immigrated to the United States in 1870 at the age of thirteen. He’s listed in the Cleveland directories as early as 1874. Beginning in 1891 and lasting through 1899, the directories listed him as a disinfectant manufacturer with an address of 48 and 50 Long. During this period, the New York City firm of E. Taussig & Co. served as West’s representative and general agents on the east coast, using the trade name “West Disinfecting Co.” NYC directories listed E Taussig & Co. at 894 First Avenue (1892 to 1894) and later at 206 East 57th Street (1896 to 1899).

As early as the mid 1890’s, E. Taussig & Co., using the West Disinfecting Company trade name, was advertising Chloro-Naptholeum in connection with a ventilator and disinfector which was apparently one of, if not the first, automated toilet sanitizer.

An advertisement, disguised as a news item, in the November 24, 1895 edition of the Atlanta Constitution described how the system worked.

Taussig’s Ventilator and Disinfectors are in use in all the public buildings at the exposition grounds as well as in Atlanta and all the largest exposition houses in New York City, and such as Edison Electric Illuminating Company, all branches, E.S. Jaffray & Co., Cotton Exchange, Masonic Temple, Mount Louis Hospital and many others. Over 35,000 now in use in the United States.

Chloro Naptholeum refined is clear as a crystal. Is used in the machines and will drip automatically for twenty-five days with one filling, one minute and twenty seconds between drops. One gallon of the fluid will last 100 days.

It contains the very best compounds of disinfectants in existence and is endorsed by the very best physicians in the country. The analysis of Chloro Naptholeum are tar and tarry products, phenols, creosote, pyrohgucous acid, naphthol, eucalyptol, carbolic acid, and the disinfectants of complex origin…

The machines are put in gratis, and all you have to buy is the fluid, and the inspector will be there every twenty-five days and fill them, thus saving you the trouble.

The machines are placed as the cut will show, and are the property of the company. The fluid is $2 in single cans and $1.75 in five and ten gallons, and $1.50 in half-barrel lots.

By the late 1890’s Taussig & Co. had assumed control of the entire business. In accordance with an agreement dated August 4, 1898, E Taussig & Co. purchased from Robert West all interest, including patents and trademarks, in both his automatic disinfectors and chloro-naptholeum. Approximately one year later, the West Disinfecting Co., Inc. was established and on July 18, 1899, the Taussig business was transferred to the new corporation. Emil Taussig, served as the first president of the newly formed corporation.

It was at the same time that the CN trademark was introduced as well. Trademark records indicate that it was first used in commerce in July, 1899.

The new corporation was listed in the 1900 NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory with offices at 26 East 59th Street in Manhattan. Around this time, the company also established a factory/laboratory across the East River in Queens. The 1903 Trow Business Directory for Brooklyn and Queens listed the factory address as 25 Orchard in Long Island City.

A profile of the company printed in the March 20, 1904 edition of the Pittsburgh Daily Post described the business at that time.

Starting from a small beginning thirteen years ago, it has grown and grown, until today it is the largest concern of its kind in America, and perhaps in the world. The main offices are in New York, and it has branches in every prominent city in the country. The Pittsburgh branch is located at 1611 Penn Avenue.

Throughout its life the West Disinfecting Company have given their attention entirely to the subject of disinfectants and disinfecting appliances, and its $50,000 chemical laboratory and works are the only works operated by such a concern in this country, and according to all the information secured the largest works in the world given over exclusively to the manufacture of such products.

Every appliance made by the company is after their own design and is patented in the United States and other countries while their disinfectants and fumigants with their registered names, protected in this country and abroad, find a sale in every civilized corner of the globe.

Emil Taussig served as president of the corporation until his untimely death aboard the Titanic in 1912. The following notice appeared in the April 20, 1912 edition of the New York Times.

According to an April 16, 1912 story in the Boston Globe, Taussig was on board the ship with both his wife and daughter.

They sailed for Europe Feb 5. He was going on a mixed business and pleasure trip on the advice of his friends, who felt he needed a rest. Although his headquarters was at Long Island City, NY, he knew every employee of the store who had been employed for a few years and would shake hands with them and call them by name when he called…He was very popular.

According to the Titanic’s records, Taussig’s wife and daughter both survived.

After Taussig’s death it appears that management and possibly ownership of the company transferred to Moses and Alexander J Marcuse. The 1914 NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory listed them as president and vice president respectively. The Marcuse family remained active in the management of the company well into the 1950’s and possibly longer.

The company offices remained listed in Manhattan until the mid-1920’s; first at 26 East 59th St (1900 to 1905); then 9 East 59th St (1905 to 1910); 2 East 42nd St (1911 to 1912); 12 East 42nd St (1914 to 1917) and 411 Fifth Ave (1918 to 1925). Then in 1926, it appears that the entire operation was consolidated in Queens. That year, the Brooklyn Queens Telephone Book listed both their office and factory at the Long Island City location. According to a story in the August 6, 1925 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, by this time, in addition to their New York facilities, the company maintained 38 branches in the United States and Canada.

The company remained in Long Island City until the late 1970’s. The business evolved into West Sanitation Services and ultimately, in 2014, as West Industries. West Industries is currently located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In addition to being used in connection with the company’s disinfecting appliances, Chloro-Naptholeum was also marketed for the household as well. The November 24, 1895 Atlanta Constitution article goes on to describe it’s suggested household uses.

We also have the Chloro Naptholeum in its crude state, which is used largely for ridding your house of all kinds of vermin, such as roaches, bedbugs, ants, insect bites and stings, itching, fetid feet, ringworm, for sickroom, for flushing drains, sinks, kitchen utensils and all kinds of places where there is foul air or bad odor. One gallon of this crude Chloro Naptholeum can be dissolved by using fifty parts water to one part Chloro Naptholeum. The Savannah board of health use thirty-five barrels of the crude every year, and are furnishing the citizens with it gratis. Sample bottle given free on application.

An advertisement, in the July 11, 1911 edition of the (New York) Evening World described how to administer CN for various uses.

Household Use – To each pail of water taken for mopping, sprinkling, scrubbing or cleaning purposes, add three tablespoonfuls of CN. It makes the cleaning easier, kills germs, destroys all odors, purifies the air, destroys ants, roaches, vermin.

Bath and Toilet – Use one tablespoonful of CN for the bath on every occasion. CN is superior to ammonia, giving exquisite tonic and softening to the water.

Sick Rooms – Move the patient into a well-disinfected room when possible. Remove unnecessary curtains and hangings, wash down walls and floor with CN solution or spray the wall paper with CN in the solution of one teaspoonful to a quart of water.

Consumption

Every house where Tuberculosis exists CN should be used daily to prevent the spread of the disease. All personal articles, eating and other utensils touched by the patient, should be carefully washed in a solution of CN. CN should be poured in the cuspidors used by the patient and should be used in all cleaning water.

An article in the September 15, 1909 edition of “Printers Ink” described how the company capitalized on people’s fear of death and disease. They focused their advertising efforts during periods of hot weather and particularly in areas where disease epidemics were present.

CN Disinfectant is not one of those products which “lay low” in summer time. It literally thrives on torrid weather, and keeps keen on the scent of epidemic and disease. With newspaper copy it is ready at short notice to jump into an infected district with a campaign to increase sales…

You have to “scare” the consumer into realizing that a disinfectant is absolutely essential for the thorough cleansing of a house and the prevention of disease.

He goes on to describe their approach.

We are constantly on the lookout for any new epidemic or threatened outbreak of contagious disease anywhere in the United States,” states Mr. Merry. “Each of our eighteen branch offices scattered throughout the country is quick to inform the home office at the first signs of anything like an outbreak anywhere, and we lose no time in placing large newspaper space and concentrating a large part of our effort in that territory at once…

Just at present there is a serious outbreak of typhoid in New York’s great East Side and we are starting a campaign in several leading Jewish dailies to tell the masses in that section of the city how CN will minimize their danger.

This advertisement which appeared the following summer in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle “hits home” with all the points Merry made in the article.

The company didn’t stop with just advertising but followed it up with door to door sales.

Undoubtedly one reason for the success of our anti-epidemic campaign is our plan of following up of our advertising when we go into a new city with a large force of women canvassers. These women, who are well dressed and well paid, call upon householders and drive home the advantage of our product, while the advertising is still fresh in the consumers’ minds. The use of a disinfectant being primarily a woman’s matter, it follows that women make the best demonstrators

In addition to marketing CN for household use, West apparently had a Railroad and Steamship Department that marketed CN for the cleaning of public facilities. This advertisement which appeared in the April 1911 edition of “Railway and Locomotive Engineering” touted it for disinfecting and washing passenger cars and stations.

And if that wasn’t enough, they also marketed a Chloro-Naptholeum “Dip” to farmers and livestock owners. A January 27, 1905 advertisement in the Weekly Livestock Report stated:

If every livestock owner who has used Chloro-Naptholeum Dip would stand up and testify truly in dollars and cents how much Chloro-Naptholeum Dip has done for his stock, the total would be much larger than the figures which represent wheat crop. Chloro-Naptholeum is a money maker. It cures mange and scab. It kills lice, fleas, etc. It heals cuts, sores, wire scratches, wounds and bruises. It disinfects and destroys all unsanitary conditions in the animal quarters and the home.

The newspaper advertisements generally fade away in the late 1930’s to early 1940’s but I’ve seen CN Disinfectant listed in Department Store advertisements as late as the late 1970’s. This April 1, 1979 advertisement for McCrory-McLellan-H.L. Green-Newberry advertised a 7 oz bottle (upper right) as one of several cleaners you could buy @ 2 for a dollar.

The bottle I found is machine made and approximately one ounce in size. It must be what advertisements referred to as the “trial” size. This 1909 advertisement indicated that the trial size amount, when mixed with water, could make 2 gallons and at the time cost ten cents.

I also found a found a four ounce bottle that accommodated a screw top.

The base of this bottle is embossed with an “O” inside a box indicating it was made by the Owens Bottle Co. This most likely dates it between 1919 and 1929.

The earliest address I can find for West’s Long Island City Factory is 25 Orchard (now 42-25 Orchard?). Orchard Street in Long Island City consists of one block between Jackson Avenue and the Sunnyside Rail Yards. On the east side a new multi-story glass tower was recently built. An older building on the west side of the street may still date back to the business.

Murray and Lanman’s Florida Water has been sold as a toilet water or perfume for almost two centuries. This 1885 advertisement called it the “universal perfume,” advertising it “for the handkerchief, the toilet and the bath.”

According to one advertisement, printed in the February 6, 1880 edition of the Oakland Tribune:

The pleasure of bathing is greatly increased by mixing in the tub half or even a quarter of a bottle of Murray & Lanman’s Florida Water. Instantly the whole atmosphere of the bath-room is as fragrant as a blooming flower garden, the mind becomes buoyant, and the body emerges refreshed and strengthened.

Some say that it has “magical” properties as well and it’s commonly used in Hoodoo, Voodoo, Santeria and Wicca practices for ritual offerings and purification among other things.

Murray and Lanman’s Florida Water is still made today by the firm of Lanman & Kemp-Barclay, who was featured in a February 7, 1999 article in the New York Daily News. According to that article:

Despite it’s name, Florida Water was never made in Florida. In fact, Florida wasn’t even a state when the company began. The word simply means “of flowers.”

The article went on to touch on the start of the business.

“We go way back,” says Stephen Cooper, president of Lanman & Kemp-Barclay, its makers. “Our company was founded in 1808 by Robert Murray. In the 1830’s, he got together with Lanman and that’s when they began our main product, which is Florida Water”

The earliest NYC directory I could find, Longworth’s New York Register and City Directory, published July 4, 1813, listed Robert J. Murray as a druggist located at 335 Pearl Street in lower Manhattan. The same directory also listed his brother, Lindley Murray, as a druggist at 313 Pearl Street. By 1826, and possibly earlier, they were listed together as Robert & Lindley Murray, druggists, located at 263 Pearl Street, corner of Fulton.

In 1835, it was Lindley Murray along with David Trumball Lanman, who established the partnership of Murray & Lanman. The business was first listed in the 1835 NYC Directory as druggists at 69 Water Street. Lindley Murray was also listed individually as a druggist at the same address. In the same directory Robert Murray was no longer listed, either individually or associated with the business.

Murray & Lanman was listed at 69 Water up through 1847. Then, in May of 1848, several legal notices printed in the Buffalo Courier named David T Lanman as the “surviving partner” of Murray & Lanaman, so Lindley Murray apparently passed away sometime in 1847 or early 1848.

Lanman remained listed individually as a druggist at 69 Water and apparently operated as a sole proprietor until 1853 when he formed a partnership with George Kemp called David T. Lanham & Co. The copartnership notice establishing the business was printed in the January 3, 1853 edition of the New York Times.

Five years later, another copartnership notice, this one printed in the January 1, 1858 edition of the New York Times, indicated that the name of the partnership was changed to D. T. Lanman & Kemp.

The company was listed in the NYC directories this way between 1858 and 1861, then in the 1862 directory they shortened the name to simply Lanman & Kemp. During this period, the business was apparently focused primarily on the foreign market. This advertisement, in the October 22, 1861 edition of the New York Times, called them “wholesale export druggists” further stating; “special attention paid to the execution of drug orders for the markets of Cuba, Mexico, West Indies and South Central America…”

It appears that by the early 1860’s, Lanman was no longer associated with the business. The 1862 NYC Directory no longer listed D.T. Lanman individually at the company’s Water Street address, and by 1865 the company listing in the NYC Copartnership and Corporation Directory included the phrase “George Kemp only” as proprietor.

Lanman & Kemp remained listed at 69 Water Street until 1871 when they moved to 68-70 William Street. It was around this time that George’s brother, Edward, joined him in the management of the business and he continued to run the business after George Kemp’s death in 1893. According to Edward’s January 2, 1902 obituary he facilitated the construction of their long time headquarters at 135 Water Street.

In 1870 he became associated with his late brother George in the firm of Lanman & Kemp, his knowledge of commercial affairs and accurate judgement assisting greatly in making the business highly successful. It was he who built the fine building at No. 135 Water Street, in which the firm’s offices are now located.

The company was first listed at this location in the 1900 directory and they remained there through the mid to late 1950’s when they moved to New Jersey. The 1957 NYC telephone book listed their general offices at 15 Grand Avenue, Palisades Park N.J., although it still included their 135 Water Street address as well. By 1959, the Water Street address was no longer listed.

They were first listed as Lanman & Kemp- Barclay & Co. in 1933. Today the company is located on Woodland Avenue in Westwood N.J.

Despite the many company name changes over the years, their florida water was always sold under the Murray & Lanman name and in fact, it’s still sold under that name today. According to Lanman & Kemp-Barclay & Co.’s web site, the product was available in the United States as early as 1808.

Murray & Lanman Florida Water was introduced into the United States market on February 14, 1808. Immediately it gained popularity and approval from the consumer and became a woldwide, well-known cologne, not only because of it’s delightful fragrance, but also because of the more than twenty uses attributed to it.

Although the Murray’s may have been selling their florida water locally in the early 1800’s, a series of D. T. Lanman & Kemp advertisements from the late 1850’s indicate that the product wasn’t widely available in the United States until around that time. This advertisement which appeared in several Ohio newspapers between April 1857 and July 1858 stated under the heading “What Are Its Antecedents” that it was being sold in the Latin American countries for twenty years before being introduced in the United States.

For twenty years it has maintained its ascendency over all other perfumes throughout Cuba, South America and the West Indies. It has been introduced into the United States in response to the earnest demand growing out of its southern reputation.

Another advertisement from the same era stated:

Murray & Lanman’s Florida Water from its great celebrity in the South America and West Indian markets, for which for twenty years it was exclusively manufactured has been extensively imitated in the United States. Now however, the original article has been introduced throughout the Union, and as it bears the distinctive trade-mark of the proprietors, may be readily distinguished by its externals from the simulated preparations.

So, if you believe their own advertising, Murray & Lanman’s Florida Water was being exported to the West Indies and South America as early as the mid to late 1830’s, around the time the company was first established in 1835 and introduced in the United States sometime in the mid to late 1850’s. Recognizing the company’s focus on foreign markets this seems to make a lot of sense.

Like most successful patent medicines of the day, much of their popularity can be attributed to advertising. Murray & Lanman’s Florida Water along with several of the company’s other products were advertised in their own publication called “Bristol’s Illustrated Almanac.” According to the 1999 Daily News feature:

…these products have been advertised for almost eight generations in Bristol’s Illustrated Almanac, the free booklets Lanman & Kemp give out each year. “Up until a short time before the Second World War, I think, it was published in Spanish, Portuguese, German, French and English,” says Cooper. The 1999 version marks 167 years of continuous publishing.”

And what publishing it is! Interspersed with page after page of shameless product endorsements are poems, recipes, weather predictions and jokes older than Florida water itself. “How to raise beets,” begins one seemingly serious entry in a turn of the century almanac. “Take hold of the tops and pull.”

What strikes me most about this product and the various companies that produced it over the years is the consistency of the image they have portrayed. The cover of their almanac hasn’t changed in over 100 years. Likewise, their bottle and its label have changed little, if at all. Advertisements from 1887 and 1946 bear this out.

Finally, here’s today’s version.

On a final note, while it has the word “water” in its name, Florida Water has more alcohol than water in its formula. In 2004, after a woman, performing a Santeria cleansing ritual involving florida water and candles died tragically in an apartment fire, the Daily News performed a test comparing the flammability of florida water to rubbing alcohol, paint thinner, nail polish remover and lighter fluid. According to the story, published in their February 26 edition:

In an indoor, controlled setting, Daily News reporters timed how long it took each product to turn a large cotton sweatshirt into a ball of flames.

About 4 ounces of each product was sprinkled on identical sweatshirts suspended on a wire coat hanger and ignited with a candle.

The sweatshirt doused in Murray & Lanman Florida Water was engulfed in flames in 10 seconds.

At 15 seconds, flames were shooting up 2 feet from the shoulders and by 40 seconds the sweatshirt was completely burned off the hanger.

The complete results of the experiment were published in the story.

The bottle I found is the typical florida water shape and is mouth blown. It’s embossed “Florida Water/Murray & Lanman/ Druggists/New York.” I’ve seen examples on the internet that also include the 69 Water Street address so it was most likely manufactured at the William Street location or right after the move to 135 Water Street.

Sometime around 1890, in Leipzig Germany, Dr August Gude formulated an iron-manganese preparation that could be used for the treatment of anemia. Unlike similar preparations developed previously, it was easily digestible, palatable and minimized side effects. According to an article in the August 1902 edition of the “Southern Practitioner:”

After laborious attempts, Dr. Gude, chemist, succeeded in producing such an iron-manganese preparation, which is easily absorbed by the entire intestinal tract, evokes no concomitant effects, and, as illustrated in the following histories of cases, has proved an excellent remedy for the formation of blood. The preparation referred to is Pepto-Mangan (Gude). It contains iron and manganese in an organic combination with peptone, and is a clear fluid, resembling dark red wine, of an agreeable, non-metallic, non-astringent taste.

The advantage of this preparation is that it exerts a stimulating effect upon the blood forming organs, these being excited to greater functional activity, and that the favorable effect manifests itself even within a short time by an increased oxygenation of the blood. At the same time…causes no digestive disturbances and does not injure the teeth.

Pepto-Mangan was manufactured in Liebzig by Dr. A Gude & Company and as early as 1892, Max J Breitenbach, a pharmacist by trade, served as Gude’s sole agent in both the United States and Canada.

According to his obituary in the September 11, 1920 edition of the “Drug Trade Weekly,” Breitenbach was born in Albany, Georgia in 1857; came to New York in 1874 and was an 1877 graduate of the New York College of Pharmacy. The obituary goes on to describe Breitenbach’s pharmacy career leading up to his association with Peptone-Mangan.

After working for a time in the drug store kept by Tsheppe & Schur at Sixtieth Street and Third Avenue, Mr. Breitenbach in 1878 took a position in the drug store of Albert Dung at Canal Street and the Bowery. Three years later he was made manager of the store and two years after that, or in 1883, he became the owner. This prospered so that he opened another drug store in Madison Avenue and met with such success in this that he decided to enter the proprietary business and in 1892 he opened an office at 53 Warren Street, which he maintained until his death.

The office on Warren Street was opened primarily, if not exclusively, to facilitate the distribution of Pepto-Mangan in the United States. Breitenbach was first listed at that location in the 1894 NYC Directory (I don’t have access to 1893) and by 1896 the firm of M. J. Britenbach Co. was also listed at the same location. Around this time Breitenbach was also getting out of the drug store business. The Bowery store was no longer listed in 1894 and the Madison Avenue store, although still called Breitenbach Pharmacy, was listed with a new owner in the 1902 Copartnership and Corporation Directory.

M.J. Breitenbach Co. remained on Warren Street well past Breitenbach’s death in 1920.

This advertisement from the mid to late 1890’s makes it clear that originally Gude’s Peptone-Mangan was imported from Leipzig, Germany.

Another, from the same decade listed Liebzig as the laboratory location.

As far as I can tell, this all changed around 1916 when Breitenbach purchased the entire company, including the Leipzig operation and established a laboratory in New York City. According to an item in the June 1916 edition of “American Medicine,” the company opened their new facility right around that time.

NO SHORTAGE OF PEPTO-MANGAN (GUDE)

It affords us pleasure to call special attention to the advertisement of Pepto-Mangan in this issue.

It will be noted that plentiful supplies of this standard hematinic are again available, after a brief shortage of stock, due to unexpected delays in the fitting up a new and thoroughly modern laboratory for its manufacture in New York City.

Pepto-Mangan (Gude) is now and will continue to be owned, controlled and manufactured in the United States, and will be supplied, exactly the same as heretofore, in unlimited quantities and at the usual price.

Interestingly, they blame their shortage of Pepto-Mangan on construction delays and not on the fact that their laboratory was located in Germany during World War I. In fact, I have to believe that the catalyst for this move to America had a lot to do with World War I; a time when it couldn’t have been good business to sell a German made product in America. Another story, this one in the October 1918 edition of the “Pharmaceutical Record” spoke of the company’s operation during the war as well as their public relations spin at the time.

After the Germans declared war on the rest of the world, M.J. Breitenbach, who owned the American rights for Gude’s Pepto-Mangan, purchased the entire business in Leibzig, Germany. He installed his own manager there and manufactured there the product intended for use in Germany, its allies, and neutral European countries. Mr. Breitenbach supplies the American market from his laboratory in New York City, which furnishes all the product used in the United States and in the balance of North America and South America and also for the countries of the Allies. The product therefore is entirely American, even that which is made and sold in Germany being American. Of course Mr. Breitenbach has not heard anything about what has happened to his property in Leipzig since America entered the war. Presumably it has been taken over by the alien property custodian and is therefore a complete loss to him. His American laboratory, however, has been going on most successfully, and under the influence of the large sum which he is spending in popular advertising there has been a very rapid growth in the consumption of the product.

It was in the late teens that the company’s approach to advertising also changed, certainly as a result of the sale to Breitenbach. Prior to the sale, the company only advertised to the medical practitioner in trade journals and circulars, a course of action that was stipulated in their contract with Dr. A Gude & Co. of Leipzig.

Section 9. And it is further agreed between Dr. A Gude & Co. party of the first part and the M.J. Breitenbach Co. party of the second part, that if at any time the said M.J. Breitenbach Co. by device or by advertising attempt to increase their business in Gude’s Peto-Mangan other than through the recognized channels to the Medical Profession then in such event this contract is to become null and void and all rights of the M.J. Breitenbach Co. existing under this instrument immediately become the property of said Dr. A. Gude & Co. without recourse to law.

In 1917, the company, now owned outright by Breitenbach, launched a national advertising campaign targeting general newspapers across the country. This advertisement, which appeared in the June 11, 1917 edition of the Pittsburgh Press, was part of that first wave of ads that appeared that year.

Based on this advertisement, in the October 1920 edition of the National Druggist, they were still using the trade publications as well, but now they were highlighting their advertising campaign to the druggists with no mention of the uses or benefits of the product itself.

Both liquid and tablet form are now being extensively advertised in the newspapers of this country. Stock both and be prepared for increased trade.

After Breitenbach’s death in 1920, the business continued to be listed at their Warren Street address up through at least the late 1920’s. By the early 1930’s they were listed at 160 Varick Street and later in the 1940’s and early 1950’s 304 East 23rd Street. Then sometime after the early 1950’s the brand was acquired by the Natcon Chemical Co who was operating out of Bethpage New York on Long Island.

Pepto-Mangan was still being sold in the early 1960’s. The last advertisement I can find for them was in the June 6, 1960 edition of the New York Daily News.

I’ve seen Pepto-Mangan included in advertised drug store price listings as late as 1964.

The bottle I found is machine made, hexagonal in cross-section and contained 11 ounces. It matches the bottle shown in a number of the newspaper advertisements that appeared between 1917 and 1920.

Sloan’s Liniment was originally a veterinary product developed by Andrew Sloan to topically treat sore and lame horses. Andrew’s son, Earl S. Sloan, is credited with initially putting it on the market as a remedy for human ills and developing it into a world wide product that is still available today. Earl’s likeness has been included prominently on Sloan’s Liniment labels from the very beginnings of the business.

Stories published in the August 4, 1910 edition of “Printers Ink” and the December, 1910 edition of another advertising publication called “The Poster,” both referenced an interview with Earl Sloan in which he talked about the origins of the liniment:

The formula for “Sloan’s Liniment,” said Dr. Sloan, was my fathers.

He was one of the chief surgeons and Inspectors of Stock during the Civil War, and it was in that work that he developed and made use of the liniment.

As a young man I was in the horse-trading business and made the liniment simply for my own use, but it became so popular with friends and neighbors that I resolved to go into the liniment business exclusively.

According to census records and limited city directory information, Earl’s father, Andrew, lived in Zanesfield Ohio (1840’s to 1860’s), where Earl was born in 1848 and later in St Louis Missouri (1870’s). By 1880, Earl had moved to Boston where his business took root. A publication entitled “Commercial and Financial New England Illustrated,” published by the “Boston Herald’ in 1906, described the early history of the business.

Whoever knows the ills of the horse, the noblest of beasts, knows the value of Dr. Earl S. Sloan’s Liniment and Veterinary Remedies, which, through extensive advertising and their own merit have become the leading remedies of their kind in the world since their introduction in 1885. When Dr. Sloan put Sloan’s Liniment and Veterinary Remedies on the market, he had only one small room on Portland Street. This room was used for an office, and the remedies, which were then strictly veterinary, were manufactured in a laboratory in the suburbs.

In 1888 increasing business obliged a removal to a larger building on Portland Street, which, being partly destroyed by fire in 1896, necessitated another removal to a still larger building on the corner of Canton and Albany Streets…

In 1901 he bought from Dr. Parker the right to sell and manufacture the Dr. Parker Family Remedies, a venture which from the inception has been crowned with success. Needing still larger and more commodious quarters for the conduct of the business, he bought in 1904, from the Reuben Green estate, the factory which he now occupies on the corner of Brookline and Albany Streets. The plant is more than twice the size of the old factory and has been fitted with all the most modern appliances…

The company was incorporated in 1904 with a capital of $50,000 and employs a force of sixty-four persons. The officers of the firm are Dr. Earl S. Sloan, president; Foreman Sloan, vice president; Andrew Sloan, treasurer; Mrs. Bertha P. Sloan, director, and Archie MacKiegan, clerk.

This history was well supported by the Boston City Directories. Sloan was first listed in the Boston directories in 1880 and by 1882 he was listed at his first Portland Street location, 166 – 175 Portland, where he remained until 1887. This advertisement in the March 6, 1886 edition of the Black Hills (South Dakota) Daily Times confirmed that by this time Sloan’s Liniment was not just being marketed as a veterinary remedy.

The man or woman that has rheumatism and fails to keep and use “Sloan’s Liniment” is like a drowning man refusing a rope.

He was subsequently listed at his second Portland Street location, 132 Portland, by 1889. His first Albany Street address was listed in 1897 at 597-599 Albany and later, by 1905, he was listed at 615 Albany.

The business was still located at 615 Albany in 1913 when Sloan sold the company to the Pfeiffer Chemical Company. The July 31, 1913 edition of “Printer’s Ink” reported the sale.

Dr. Earl S. Sloan has sold his entire interests in the Dr. Sloan’s Mfg. Company (Sloan’s Liniment), of Boston, a “close” corporation. The purchasers are Henry Pfeiffer and J. A. Pfeiffer, of the Pfeiffer Chemical Company of St. Louis Mo. The business will be continued in Boston for the present…

During most of Earl Sloan’s time heading the company, Sloan’s Liniment was advertised as both a farm and home remedy – “cures all pain in man or beast.” An advertisement included in several southern U.S. newspapers in 1898, makes the same point with a little more flair.

A beautiful woman and a handsome horse appeal to every southerner’s heart. Both are better for the use of, and may be kept free from illness, by Sloan’s Liniment!

In fact, Sloan credited advertising for growing “Sloans Liniment” from a local veterinary medicine to a product sold world wide by 1910. According to Earl Sloan’s interview in the December, 1910 edition of Printer’s Ink:

For years I put every dollar I could possibly take out of the business back into advertising. This meant, of course, an increasing expenditure each year until today we utilize practically all mediums, and even issue a magazine of our own, known as “Sloan’s Farm and Home Journal,” of which we send out millions of copies annually.

According to the “Printer’s Ink”story, the business depended on signs and billposting for every-day reminders and on newspapers and booklets for educational work. The words “Sloans Liniment” were always the most prominent feature in his newspaper and outdoor signage.

We believe that in that way we teach the public to unconsciously connect the two in their mind. Whenever they think of liniment they think of Sloan’s.

He went on to describe the world-wide recognition the product was receiving in 1910.

The far-reaching effect of our advertising has been surprising. I do not believe there is a spot in the world, reasonably civilized, where “Sloan’s Liniment” is not for sale. A man once wanted to make a wager with me that he knew one place where there was no “Sloan’s Liniment,” and he gave the Isle of Malta, which he said is the hottest place in the world. I looked up our records and found we had two druggists there who were selling large quantities of the liniment to the natives and to sailors on ships that use the Isle of Malta as a coaling station…

Yes, we advertise in foreign countries, as much proportionately as in the United States, using mostly newspapers, outdoor advertising and some street car advertising. Our business in England, Germany, South America and the West Indies is increasing so rapidly that it is hard for us to keep up with it.

The long history of “Sloan’s Liniment” suggests that it’s value as a liniment also contributed to it’s success but the company’s advertisements marketed it as much more than just a liniment. One 1905 advertisement called it “a complete medicine chest” and another, this one from 1920, listed 26 human conditions for which the liniment offered relief.

Advertisements in 1905 even advertised it as a preventative for yellow fever and malaria.

Avoid Yellow Fever

Use the great antiseptic preventative Sloan’s Liniment. Six drops of Sloan’s Liniment on a teaspoonful of sugar will kill yellow fever and malaria germs.

Farmers were also in luck. This 1908 advertisement announced it brought relief for various ailments associated with horses, cattle and sheep, hogs and poultry.

After Sloan sold the business it continued to operate under the name Dr. Earl S. Sloan, Inc., and they continued to list Boston as their home office on the “Sloan’s Liniment” label through 1916. The label also listed locations of Philadelphia and St. Louis in the U.S.; Toronto, Canada, and London, England.

Then in 1917, the label was revised, dropping the Boston location and adding New York.

The company address in New York was 113 West 18th Street. In the 1933 NYC Directory, Henry Pfeiffer was listed as president, and G.A. Pfeiffer as vice president and treasurer. During this period their advertisements continued to focus on the relief of joint and muscle pain but they were no longer using phrases like “cures rheumatism” and “destroys all germ life.”

According to an article in the October 15, 1945 edition of the Atlanta Constitution, around that time 14 companies, including the Pfeiffer Chemical Co., and Dr. Earl S. Sloan, Inc. were consolidated under the name Standard Laboratories, Inc. The 1948 NYC Directory listed Standard Lab’s Inc. at the 113 West 18th Street address. In fact, Standard Lab’s was listed at that address as far back as the early 1920’s so it appears that the relationship between Sloan, Pfeiffer and Standard Lab’s probably dated back much further than the consolidation.

Built in 1913, the building utilized by the business at 113 West 18th Street still remains today.

By the early 1950’s Standard Laboratories, Inc. was located in Morris Plains N.J. According to bestbusinessny.com the company has been inactive since the mid 1980’s.

Sloan’s Liniment continues to be made today by Lee Pharmaceuticals and according to drugs.com, it’s still used for temporary relief of muscle or joint pain caused by strains, sprains, arthritis, bruising or backaches.

Over 130 years later, the packaging still includes Earl Sloan’s likeness on the label.

I’ve found two “Sloan’s Liniment” bottles, both three ounces in size. One is mouth blown and Embossed “Sloan’s Liniment / Kills Pain” that was probably made prior to Earl selling the business in 1913. The other is machine made, only embossed “Sloan’s Liniment” and most likely dates to the period following the sale.

According to Sweet Clover Dairy advertisements published in later years, Charles H. Dahl founded the business in 1888. Originally located in Brooklyn, Dahl moved to 200 Nassau Rd in Roosevelt, Long Island sometime in the early 1910’s.

Dahl was not listed in the Brooklyn directories during the initial years but census records from 1900 listed his occupation as a “milk dealer” living on Linwood Street in the East New York section of the borough. A wholesale milk dealer, according to a story in the October 15, 1903 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle entitled “Jail for Selling Bad Milk,” that year he was convicted and sent to jail for selling adulterated or impure milk.

…Many of the milk dealers who have been convicted of selling adulterated or impure milk declare the wholesalers are responsible for the impurity and the Health Department inspectors have been doubly watchful in their efforts to trace the guilty one. They managed to get one wholesaler before the court yesterday and he will spend the next thirty days in the Kings County Jail. He was Charles H. Dahl of 860 Liberty Avenue, who was arrested July 8. Half a dozen milk dealers whom Dahl had been supplying for years were on hand to testify against the man. One was a man named Meyer, who has already paid $725 in fines. Meyer had been convicted three times of selling adulterated milk and once for selling without the necessary permit from the Department of Health. He had been selling Dahl’s milk…

Dahl was convicted on this charge and sent to jail for thirty days, Justice Flemming dissenting. On two other charges sentence was suspended. Assistant Corporation Counsel Wilson said:

“I think the man is a flagrant lawbreaker and he ought to go to jail.”

At least half a dozen dealers who sold Dahl’s milk have been convicted recently in the Court of Special Sessions”

Two years later, the October 4, 1905 edition of the “City Record” announced that two of Dahl’s permits had been revoked. They were:

No. 1165 – A permit to keep 3 cows at the north side of Linwood Street, 165 feet south of Stanley Avenue and

No. 2545 A permit to sell milk at the north side of Linwood Street, 165 feet south of Stanley Avenue.

Nonetheless, Dahl remained in East New York, Brooklyn through at least 1910. Census records from 1910 listed him as a “dairyman” living on Barbey Street, also in East New York.

By 1915, the New York State census listed Dahl, along with his two sons, Charles H. Dahl Jr. and Frederick Dahl, in Roosevelt. So sometime between 1910 and 1915, they moved to Long Island. His troubles with the Department of Health however, continued. The December 31, 1915 edition of the Nassau County Review reported “Milk Dealer Held for Grand Jury”

Charles Dahl who runs the dairy on Washington Avenue, Roosevelt, was arrested Thursday on complaint of Health Officer Runcie of Freeport on the charge of putting wrong labels on bottles. The case was reported to the State Board of Health and the State Sanitary supervisor, Dr. Overton of Patchogue, made an additional inspection with Dr. Runcie and after an analysis of the milk forbade Dahl using any labels marked Grade A, and gave him one week to get labels marked Grade C. Dr. Runcie states that three days later they found Dahl again carrying milk in the Village of Freeport labeled Grade A, and therefore a warrant was sworn out for his arrest. He was taken before Judge Norton, who held him under $200 bail for examination before the Grand Jury. Bail was furnished by his father.

The fact that his father bailed him out leads me to believe that it was actually Charles, Jr. who was arrested. Despite this early transgression, the company seems to have enjoyed a long and successful history in Roosevelt.

Charles Sr. was still listed as the proprietor in the 1940 census records, but it appears that during much of their time on Long Island, it was Charles Jr. who managed the business. Frederick, was also involved but apparently not at the same level of responsibility.

According to a December 1948 advertisement for the Sweet Clover Dairy:

In 1888, Sweet Clover Dairy was founded by Charles H. Dahl. For the past 30 years, his son, Charles H. Dahl Jr., has built expanded and modernized the plant, facilities and methods of operation of Sweet Clover Dairy.

This would put Dahl Jr in a lead management position sometime in the mid to late teens. It was about this time that the business began expanding by purchasing another delivery route in the Village of Freeport. According to a news item under the heading “Freeport” in the April 7, 1916 edition of the Nassau County Review:

A.S. Mott has sold his milk business to C.H. Dahl of Roosevelt, who will operate the route in connection with his present milk business.

One of Sweet Clover Dairy’s advertising slogans was “Produced in Nassau for Nassau Consumption” and by the mid 1940’s, in addition to routes in Roosevelt and Freeport, they were also operating routes in the Nassau County communities of Lynbrook, Oceanside, Rockville Centre, Baldwin, Merrick, Hempstead and Uniondale.

It was also in the mid to late 1940’s that they significantly upgraded their plant at 200 Nassau Road. The open house invitation “to view and inspect the new, modern pasteurization plant of the Sweet Clover Dairy” read in part:

Since last year the Sweet Clover Dairy has constructed the most unique milk processing plant on Long Island. Unique in respect that the complete milk processing operation, (without the touch of a human hand) is done in front of large plate glass picture widows, open at all times to the public’s eye.

The invitation included this rendering of the new plant and from appearances the business had come a long way from their Department of Health issues of the early 20th century.

Charles H. Dahl Jr died in May 1971 and his wife continued to own the business for a number of years after his death. As far as I can tell the Sweet Clover Dairy was still in operation at 200 Nassau Road as late as 1979 and possibly longer.

The dairy was apparently located at the terminus of Washington Ave in a triangular plot formed by Nassau Road, Babylon Turnpike and West Centennial Avenue. Today that area is occupied by the Roosevelt Senior Center and there is no sign of the former dairy.

The bottle is a machine made, round quart bottle. It’s embossing includes the Roosevelt L.I. location so it dates no earlier than 1910 to 1915. Based on this 1940 advertisement, the dairy was still using the round bottle type in the early 1940’s. By the late 1940’s, their advertisements exhibit a square bottle with a cream top.

This range is confirmed and further refined by the makers mark of “A.B.C.2” embossed on the bottle. It stands for the Atlantic Bottle Co., who, according to information on the Society of Historical Architecture’s web site, used that mark between 1918 and 1931.

The Whittemore name was associated with shoes and blacking going back at least as far as 1850. That year, census records listed Daniel Whittemore as a shoemaker located at North Bridgewater, Plymouth, Massachussets. Ten years later, in the 1860 census records, he listed himself as a blacking maker still located in North Bridgewater.

Sometime in the late 1860’s or early 1870’s, Daniel Whittemore’s sons, John Q.A. and Charles Whittemore established the company of Whittemore Brothers & Co. That business was first listed in the 1873 Boston City Directory as manufacturers of leather dressings with an address of 100 Lincoln. The two Whittemore brothers along with a third partner, W. Augustus Paine, were named as proprietors.

The company was listed in Boston with a Lincoln Avenue address up through 1889; first at 100 Lincoln and later from 1874 to 1889 at 176 – 184 Lincoln. Then by 1891 they had moved to 237 Albany Street, also in Boston, where they remained until 1901.

In 1902 the company apparently moved across the Charles River to Cambridge Mass. The 1902 Boston directory included an advertisement that located them in Cambridgeport.

The following year, in 1903, the company was first listed in the Cambridge City Directory at 20 -26 Albany Street. (Apparently there are two Albany Streets; one in Boston and another in Cambridge.) The directory that year also included an advertisement that mentioned both an office and factory at that location.

The business remained listed on Albany Street in Cambridge up through at least 1947. Up until 1905, the business listed their address as 20 Albany Street, then 84 Albany Street and ultimately 68 -92 Albany Street changing their name to Whittemore Bros. Corp. sometime around 1915.

This December 1911 advertisement printed in the Pharmaceutical Era called Whittemore the “Oldest and Largest Manufacturers of Shoe Polishes in the World.”

It also named a wide array of brands, including “French Gloss” that were being sold under the Whittemore name and the purpose of each. They included:

“ELITE” combination for those who take pride in having their shoes look A-1. Restores color and lustre to all black shoes.

“BULLY SHINE.” A waterproof paste polish for all kinds of black shoes and rubbers. Blacks, polishes, softens and preserves. Contains oils and waxes to polish and preserve the leather, also Russet Bully Shine.

“DANDY” combination for cleaning and polishing all kinds of russet or tan boots and shoes.

“FRENCH GLOSS.” For blacking and polishing ladies’ and children’s boots and shoes. SHINES WITHOUT RUBBING.

“BOSTON.” A black liquid polish for men’s and boys’ shoes. Produces a patent leather polish without brushing. “BOSTON” is excellent for cleansing old rubbers.

“LIGHTNING DYE” instantly blacks all colored shoes.

“SUEDEDENE” for cleansing and recoloring all kinds and colors of suede and ooze leather footwear, also Black and Castor. In powder or liquid form. Powders in patent sifting top cans.

An advertisement from 1930, specific to the “French Gloss” brand stressed that it “Shines Without Brushing” and focused on children’s shoes.

It is very easily applied, dries quickly, covers those annoying scuffs which children have in footwear and can be used also on rubbers.

It’s not clear when “French Gloss,” was first introduced as a Whittemore brand. An item called “French Gloss for Ladies’ Shoes” was included in an advertisement for a store named Jewett’s in the November 30, 1869 edition of the Buffalo (N.Y.) Daily Courier so its possible that the brand dates back to the origins of the business. That being said, I can’t positively associate the brand with the Whittemore name until the 1890’s. It continued to be advertised into the 1940’s.

The bottle I found is machine made and contains 3 ounces. It’s embossed “Whittemore Boston” on one side and “French Gloss” on the other. It was most likely manufactured in the latter part of the company history, probably 1920’s or 1930’s